NEW DELHI: The Marketing Committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has decided to cancel the current tender process for the telecast rights and to put out a fresh tender with new terms.

"The Marketing Committee has expressed its intent to get out of all the legal battles in courts with regard to telecast rights," said the BCCI treasurer and member of the committee N. Srinivasan.

The BCCI will approach the Delhi High Court during the next hearing slated for December 12 and seek its approval to cancel the current tender process. All the parties have also decided to go for fresh bidding.

Considering that the Union Government is to come up with a legislation to enable Doordarshan to get the feed of all of India's matches on a mutually agreeable revenue sharing basis, the BCCI will codify and define the terms for the public broadcaster for the terrestrial rights. The BCCI will sell the satellite rights separately.

The satellite rights will exclude direct to home (DTH), internet, video and mobile telephony.

Sponsorship issue

The team sponsorship by Sahara having expired on November 30, the Board has decided to float tenders on December 12, to be returned on December 19, to choose the new sponsor.

The Marketing Committee will open the bids on the same day and will ratify at its next meeting to be held on December 20. The team sponsorship will entail the sponsor branding its name on the chest and leading arm of the players' shirts.

The BCCI, which agreed to sell team sponsorship to Sahara for the ongoing Test series against Sri Lanka as a one-off case, after the expiry of the earlier contract, said that it had removed the controversial clause of `right of first refusal' and the `right to match the highest bid' to the outgoing sponsor.

"The highest bidder will get the team sponsorship," said, BCCI vice-president and member of the Marketing Committee Lalit Modi.

The new committee that took over after the change of leadership in the Board has also tried to answer the contentious issue of team logo during ICC tournaments.

The team sponsorship will be sold only for bilateral tours. There will be a separate team sponsor for the Champions Trophy and World Cup, both ICC events, to avoid conflict of interest with the ICC sponsors such as LG, Pepsi, Hero Honda, Hutch, Indian Oil and Cable and Wireless.

In an effort to broaden its sources of revenue, the BCCI has decided to "unbundle" the package and sell it separately. Years after every other cricket board had come up with official merchandise, the Board will give its name for official apparel, accessories, cricketing gear and equipment and novelty items to be sold to public at large.

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